Whatcha play'n?

[Kerreth]

Well, it depends on your definition of "positive" experience. Geez that game. So good.

Did you play the demo for The Stanley Parable? Even if you already played the game or the mod, you have to play the demo because it's hilarious and exists kinda separately from both. I was going to pick it up at the last Steam Sale but apparently Valve is horrible at communicating when exactly their sales end (since I figured 12/3 meant I had all of 12/3 to pick up all the stuff instead of just up to 12/3 at 8am HST).

[Adol The Red]

[Adol The Red]

Not good at shooters? Check.
Especially not good at bullet hell shooters? Also check.

Playing Touhou 6 anyway because my fandom demands it? Yeah... This won't be pretty. Had to get me a usb controller because playing a shooter with directional keys just wasn't cutting it. On the plus side, if I ever get around to actually playing Ys Origin I have a programmable controller I can use.

Either way the game is fun, this is just going to take some getting used to. It's been a while since I tried to learn a new skill, and while dodging endless streams of bullets might not have much practical application it'll be interesting to see if I can do it.

[GOTL]

Patiently waiting for new stealth games. Right now I'm trying to get a team together and play Dawngate competitively.
And of course while playing MGQ chapter 3 too, the translation is there now.

[Kerreth]

I bought The Stanley Parable (Steam Daily Deal for $8.99). It is hilarious.

[Kerreth]

Let's see, recently, I've finished 3 games.

The Stanley Parable, well... sort of. I've seen most of the endings. And it's absolutely hilarious, the best one in my mind involves the "adventure line." I totally recommend it.

Alan Wake's American Nightmare... just no. I mean, even if you liked the original Alan Wake (which I did, it was super repetitive and sloggy, but I loved the story and setting), American Nightmare is a safe skip. It had a few things going for it... the pulp theme, the villain, the setting, the cheesy live action cutscenes, but the combat mechanics are way duller than the original, none of the side characters have any redeeming qualities (and they're kinda sexist), and the story structure is just awful. You just relive the same 3 sections of the game 3 times with the most minor of differences! That's not a good deja vu story, that's just annoying!

And lastly, I bought a PS3 last month so I could play all those juicy exclusives I missed out on, and just 20 minutes ago I finished Heavy Rain. OH MY GOD that game is tense. Easily one of my favorite games ever, there were so many moments that made me cringe in fear for the characters' fates, two in particular being one chapter with broken glass in a vent and electrical condensers (definitely the most terrifying chapter in the game), and one involving a being trapped in a car on its way to a shredder (I missed the button prompts in that section so many times, I'm surprised I survived it). The titles of the endings I got shouldn't be too spoilery, so I'll say I ended up with "A New Start," "Heroine," "Case Closed," and "Origami's Grave."

Also, and this is a spoiler, I went back to your guys' comic on Heavy Rain a while ago, and (highlight for spoiler) the third sentence in your newsblogpost accompanying it is HILARIOUS. (end spoiler)

[Kerreth]

Oh, and maybe I was too traumatized by it to remember it, but also the scene near the end in the burning apartment building. Also fucking terrifying.

[Adol The Red]

I hate feeling like I'm hitting a wall with what I can do. Still taking stabs at Touhou, mostly concentrating on six. I know I'm trying to learn to play a type of game I've never played much and have never been good at, but it's frustrating. It's not that I'm not improving; I'm definitely better than when I started it. What's discouraging is how I'll play the best I ever have, survive attacks I've never managed to survive till now, then die in the stupidest ways imaginable on things I know how to dodge. I'm doing my best to be patient, always a weakness, but till now I've managed to stave off the feeling that I simply won't be able to beat this game. I've gotten all the way to the level 5 boss twice, but I'm actually worse at level five than when I first played it.

I'm going to keep at it. I really want to play and beat these games. They are fun, and most of the time I can avoid being frustrated. Some of it is my controller. I can't program the d-pad for these games so I'm stuck with the sticks. I thought that was better at first, but now I'm not so sure. I have to turn the sensitivity up so I don't have to push the sticks far to get a response, but my control, even in focus mode where I'm slowed down, suffers for it. Twitch dodging is almost impossible. Either I don't push the stick far enough and the character doesn't move, or I fly across the screen straight into another bullet. Don't get me wrong, my skills have a long way to go, but I think I need to look into other options for control. I've tried keyboard controls, but I can't do diagonal movement with it precisely enough, and I don't like how the mouse control patch works. What I think I need is a programmable controller with a d-pad that works as a directional controller and not as a set of hotkeys like the one I have now.

Eh I'm not giving up yet. Just needed to vent, I suppose.

[Bear]

@GOTL, have you played Mark of the Ninja? I know a few people here have spoken highly of it before, like Fixxxer and I believe Kerreth? Pie and I haven't had a chance to snag it yet, but it's really high on our list now~

@Kerreth I'm happy to hear you liked Heavy Rain so much! That game seriously is intense. I did the exact same thing...I was cringing at those scenes.

@Adol Good luck on your Touhou adventures Adol! I keep hearing about this series like everywhere and it's starting to spark some of my curiosity. Where do we get our hands on this thing? Is it purchasable or free?? The last bullet hell game I played was Ikaruka which I would highly recommend...I've wanted to make a comic on it for a long time when we first started out~


Okay! So as far as what I've been playing!

Antichamber
When news first starting hitting about this game, I kept thinking...wow...that game looks really interesting. After 11 hours I finally completed it (not exhaustively, though) and yeah! It is SO interesting!! I would say it should be a must own for any puzzle fan. The game is minimalist to a point of being pristine and draws you in with ambient sound that evokes your curiosity in a way that drives you forward, whichever way you determine forward is.

The game drops very subtle hints through life lesson pictures and each one helps remind you in an abstract way how to progress. At first, the game may seem really confusing, but once things start coming together in your mind, you start to see the genius in the design and how where you've been and what you've learned has enabled you to get further and further. I must say, it's a fantastic unconventional puzzle game that kept my mind abuzz the whole time I played!

Aura Kingdom
The relentless search for a MMO home continues. I'm seriously getting sick of how easy MMOs have been... It's starting to grow beyond frustration to the point of insulting annoyance. It's so hard to find a game with a style, combat and world I really enjoy...I'm so picky -.- But I digress...

Aura Kingdom is in closed beta right now and was completely off the radar! Pie and I have been enjoying it! The style is quite pleasing and the cell shading reminds me a lot of Level 5 games (DQ 8, Dark Cloud 2). The combat is...sadly way too easy right now, BUT it gives hope that the game ramps up in difficulty by way of having mini-bosses on the maps that spawn frequently and can really tear into you. As you get used to it and gear up, things get easier, but remain a bit addictive because of the randomized stat loot porn that drops generously from minibosses (everyone who attacks the miniboss gets loot).

The game has a character stat system reminiscent of RO which I adore and a talent tree akin to FF12's license board. Actually, the game sorta feels like a mix between RO, WoW and FF. I sorely miss stat allocation in games and I'm happy to see it in Aura Kingdom as another way to fine tune your build or come up with alternate specialties from the same class and talent build.

The combat is fun though and enemies have a balance of white damage and WildStar style telegraphs to avoid, while remaining fluid and action oriented. It's not nearly as tight as Dragon Nest, but play-wise is about on par with WildStar though in Aura Kingdom you need to have an enemy targeted in order to process your move.

I won't say too much more about it right now because I'm still waiting to see how the F2P elements work out and how difficulty start to scale in the 20 and up levels. It has captured my attention though, so we'll see how it goes~

[Adol The Red]